As a musician, albeit at the high school level (Itzhak Perlman I ain't),
I agree with the principles Judy Carmichael expresses, and they certainly
could be applied to attract more of the younger set to mechanical music.

She is 100% right that many young people have iPods in their ears
constantly but aren't really listening.  I feel like a broken record
carping about it as often as I do, but I don't find most of today's
music even moderately listenable.  It all goes by at what seems like
prestississimo, with little harmonic structure to speak of, and most
lyrics seem to be "oh-oh-oh-oh" followed by something about sex.
This music in no way encourages listening, because there's nothing
to listen to!

I sincerely believe that today's Top 40 could be used as an effective
anesthetic on anyone undergoing an ear or brain operation -- it's that
bad.  I can think of very few other young people who really listen to
music, and almost all of those who do have tastes which diverge from
the mainstream garbage.

Carmichael is also right that experiencing musical performance
encourages listening.  I would go with her point and say that musical
performance in general encourages communication.  Musicians must
communicate between each other, especially in improvised jazz, but,
more importantly, performance is a communication between the performers
and the audience.  I therefore believe that music education encourages
communication in all facets of life.  If I ever had the opportunity to
bring a mechanical instrument into my school, I would take it faster
than lightning.

In my opinion, mechanical music performance adds another facet of
communication because of its unique nature.  The person exhibiting
the instrument is communicating with its audience, but there is also,
in some way, communication between the instrument and the audience.
A 1920s instrument playing a roll from the 1920s, I believe, is
definitely communicating about the 1920s with its audience.  This is
an unusual way to think about this, but I think it makes some semblance
of sense.

What student could ignore Ms. Carmichael if she brought world-class
musicians to his school?  The student would be naturally impelled to
listen, and then might want to listen to more later.  In the same way,
if mechanical instruments are made available to the public, how can
they not listen?  We all should do our part in this.

I don't presently own any instruments to be able to take anywhere, but
I'm doing everything I can to make the Glen Echo band organ "pop" more
to its audience of people throughout the park.  Imagine what a base
mechanical music might have to build from in the future if each of us
could get one young person interested in mechanical music!

TJ Fisher